


And Light to Meet Her

by MissBinx



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter is like foreplay, Ben Solo is suave, Dark Rey (Star Wars), Dark Side Rey, F/M, Jedi Ben Solo, Rey Needs A Hug, Slow Burn, Smuggler Ben Solo, The Dark Side of the Force, Virgin Rey (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:47:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25501612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissBinx/pseuds/MissBinx
Summary: After the destruction of Niima Outpost, Rey was recruited into the Knights of Ren, saving her soulmate in the force from his fall to the dark side. Years later, as the new galactic war heats up, their paths cross and Ben realizes that she is the girl he has been dreaming of since he left the Jedi Order. As darkness rises, smuggler Ben Solo must be the light to meet it.*discontinued*
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 21





	And Light to Meet Her

**_Prologue -_ ** **_Seven Years Ago (28 ABY)_ **

“A half ration,” Unkar Plutt’s voice barked out as he slammed the droid holoprojector back onto the table, his eyes not bothering to look at the little face that barely cleared the counter. He slid a half-ration pack towards the small girl’s outstretched fingers.

Rey’s hand did not reach for the ration. Instead, she lifted the holoprojector and slid it back into her pocket. “It’s worth at least a full ration,” she argued.

“It’s worth half or you’ll go hungry,” Plutt spat, reaching out, palm up as he waited for Rey to place the scrap back into his possession.

Her stomach gave a loud growl, and not for the first time, she felt herself wobble under the hot sun. She searched recent memory, trying to remember when she’d last had a full meal. She’d gone hungry the day before, unable to find any suitable scrap to bring to the outpost for trading. Or maybe it had been two days since she’d last eaten. 

The hand in her pocket grew sweaty, as she drummed her fingers around the astromech and thought about her options. Half a ration was better than no ration and she was scrawny for a thirteen year old -- she didn’t need as many calories as some of the other scavengers and she was used to only being given enough food to survive.

But this droid holoprojector was in  _ great _ condition. When she’d held it up to the sun, there were none of the usual cracks or scratches from being tossed around in sandstorms and the metal had polished to a shine. It was worth two rations, maybe  _ three.  _ “I’ll keep it then.”

It was a gamble, she knew. Unkar Plutt was a proud man and didn’t appreciate haggling. In Niima Outpost, Plutt was king and getting on his bad side could mean death. She’d seen others starve to death and it wasn’t a pretty way to go. But Rey had seen the glint in Plutt’s eyes when she put the holoprojector on the counter. She knew that he knew it was worth something. Droid parts were rare on the decrepit battlefields of Jakku and a piece in such good condition could bring in a lot of credits for Plutt.

“Stop,” Plutt growled.

Rey stopped in her tracks, trying to keep the triumphant smirk from her face as she turned back towards the junklord. Her stomach gave another growl at the thought of a full ration for dinner. Any thought of victory vanished, however, as she looked into Plutt’s face, her blood running cold at the sight of his smirk.

“Thief! Grab her! She stole my holoprojector!” Plutt shouted and it all seemed to happen in slow motion. Two of the guards charged Rey, one of them raising his staff as the other grabbed Rey by the waist and pulled her to the ground. She landed on her belly, trying to wriggle out of the guard’s grasp until the second one pressed his staff against the back of her head, pushing her face into the scorching sand.

She managed to turn her head, coughing and trying to wipe the sand from her eyes as both guards fished around in her pockets for the holoprojector. She felt the moment it was yanked from her pocket, as if it was a vital organ being torn from her body. “No! It’s mine!” Rey screamed, watching in horror as one of the guards carried it to the shack and dropped the part onto the counter..

The other guard forced Rey up onto her knees and she could see, from the corner of her eye, other scavengers crawling from their tents to see what the commotion was. Bitter tears stung her eyes as she cursed her stupidity for trying to barter. Unkar Plutt didn’t barter and now she had no parts and no food.

She looked down at the ground, focusing on each individual grain of sand she could make out as she tried her hardest not to cry. Jakku, where water was rare, was no place for tears. She wouldn’t cry -- it wouldn’t fill her belly or get her holoprojector back and therefore it wasn’t worth the energy.

Unkar Plutt didn’t bother leaving his shack as he spoke his cruel words. He never left the shack, because he was fat and lazy and came from an aquatic planet. She hated Unkar Plutt, wanted to spit on him as he spoke to her. “I told you. Half a ration, or nothing.”

“It’s worth more!” Rey’s voice was shrill and she was sure it would have sounded much more fierce if she didn’t have a throat full of sand.

“You take what I give you, little girl. I don’t barter! Next time you’ll think twice about trying to screw me over. Remember who owns you!” He leaned across the counter, trying to be menacing, but Rey felt no fear. Only anger.

“No one owns me!” She spat, and her hand shot up as she felt a rush of power flow through her. Then, as if she had conjured it, several bolts of blue lightning shot from her fingertips towards Plutt and though her eyes squeezed shut against the brightness, she couldn’t block out his screams of pain.

When it was over, there was only silence. The guard who was holding her down on her knees backed away, and Rey stood slowly. “Did I…?” She looked around desperately, hoping someone could explain to her what had just happened, but everyone was backing away from her slowly, fear in their eyes.

“He’s dead!” Someone who had been brave enough to look over the counter shrieked. “She killed him!”

Rey’s heart beat fast as dozens of accusatory eyes turned towards her, “I-I didn’t! I couldn’t!” She didn’t understand what had happened, where the lightning came from but she knew it wasn’t her. If she were capable of such things, she would have killed him a lot sooner, along with every other person who’d laid hands on her or stolen her scraps or even looked at her wrong. She was so used to being scared that the anger she felt now surprised her.

“You! Girl!” A voice called, and Rey stomped on the foot of the guard who had released her and snatched his half-staff, swinging it in defense towards the gray haired man wearing only a dark cape and trousers who had called to her from the doorway of the only cantina in the outpost. He raised his one gloved hand and the staff flew out of Rey’s grasp into his hand. “Come with me.”

“No!” She shot back, shivering. Something about this man made her skin crawl and she wondered what kind of magic he used to get the staff away from her. Probably the same magic that he’d used to kill Unkar Plutt and Rey wasn’t stupid. There was no way she was going  _ anywhere _ with this man. There was no way she was letting anyone tell her what to do ever again.

The anger that she’d felt was still simmering under her skin. She thought of her parents who’d left her there on Jakku, who had sold her to Plutt like she was nothing. She thought about how she’d been slaving away for more than half her life, and about all the little scratch marks she’d left waiting for parents who didn’t love her. 

She thought about all the times she’d hurt herself climbing the behemoth ruins of wars fought before she’d been born and of all the times she’d gone to bed with cramps in her belly from how hungry she felt. She thought about the time just weeks ago, when scavengers broke into her AT-AT and stole every last bit of her hoarded rations. And she thought about the teedos who had ambushed and beat her when she was only ten stealing her hard-earned finds for themselves. She thought about the stolen holoprojector, about how she was Plutt’s and everything that she had was also his.

She thought about every time in her short life that someone had wronged her and the anger was so fierce that this time as the lightning bolts shot from her hands, she  _ knew _ it was her. She  _ relished _ that it was her. She wasn’t bothered when the bolts set fire to Plutt’s shack or when the fire spread to the tents and people she knew started screaming in terror and pain. She wanted  _ more power. _

She stood and watched as the whole outpost burned, perhaps for hours, and it wasn’t until the last of the screams died out before Rey began to feel regret for the destruction her anger had caused. She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into the face of the gray haired man. 

“Don’t be scared, little one,” he smiled, wiping a tear off her cheek with his gloved hand. “That was wonderful.”

Rey shook her head. There was nothing wonderful about what she’d done. She killed Plutt and burned down the entire outpost. “What am I going to do?” she asked quietly. “I never wanted this.”

“Come with us,” the man gestured to his group of friends, all of whom wore masks and black cloaks. “I’m Ren and I bet _ you _ are hungry.”

Rey nodded and let Ren lead her to their Oubliette-class transport, her stomach already growling at the prospect of food. Even if these were bad men, she couldn’t stay on Jakku any longer.

*****

Ben Solo woke with a start, drenched in sweat and for the first time in a very long time, was greeted with absolute silence in his head. He turned in his bed, looking over his shoulder as his uncle’s form bent over him. Ben didn’t miss the sight of the lightsaber in his hand and he pushed aside the instinct to reach for his own. Instead, he asked calmly, “What are you doing here, Master Skywalker?”

Luke clipped the lightsaber back to his utility belt and pulled his cloak over it to conceal the weapon, as though he was ashamed that Ben had caught him holding it. “You cried out. Is everything okay?”

Ben sat up in bed and pulled a blanket tight around him, trying not to think about how the voice in his head was gone. He couldn’t remember what he’d been dreaming that made him wake up so frightened. He blinked a few times, adjusting as Luke turned on the lamp in Ben’s room. He swore he could see bolts of lightning burned into his eyelids each time he blinked. He shivered. “Do you feel that? It feels… cold.”

“I don’t feel anything, Ben.” Luke frowned and Ben recognized that look of concern that crossed his features. He remembered when he was young and Luke looked at him with warmth, but the years had drained that warmth and he went from being Uncle Luke to Master Skywalker. Ben liked to think it was because they were both Jedi, but Ben knew that wasn’t true. 

He scared Luke. More and more his uncle had been looking at him, not with the concern of a paternal figure, but with the fear one felt around an unsettling stranger. Ben couldn’t blame him for his fear, because Ben knew that the voice he communed with was leading him down a dark path. Luke was right to feel fear and now that the voice was no longer in his head, he could think clearly. “We need to talk.”

“I think we do,” Luke agreed and sat down on the bed. Ben knew his uncle was a patient man and if they sat on the bed for hours, Luke would still be waiting silently for Ben to begin speaking.

“I am going to leave the Order,” Ben told his uncle, to which he received a nod. “I have to stop training… I know you feel it in me too. The darkness.”

“Yes,” Luke agreed easily and Ben crumpled in on himself. “I think that would be for the best, Ben.”

The decision wasn’t one Ben had thought about before now. The force was a part of him and Ben knew he was strong with it, but that didn’t mean that it was all that he was. Now that the voice was gone, no longer whispering lies about the Jedi or Luke -- and Ben knew now that they were lies meant to poison his mind -- he could think clearly about things.

The voice could be back in an hour or a day or a week, but Ben  _ knew _ the best thing was to leave his training behind, put as much distance between himself and the Jedi before he walked a path he couldn’t turn back from. He would miss learning and training and the few friends he had, but if he was afraid and  _ Uncle Luke _ was afraid, then he knew it was the right thing to do. He would always be tempted by the power of the force, and that had no place in the Jedi Code.

“As your master, your clever brain and skills will be missed,” Luke said, tapping Ben on the head. “And as your uncle, your heart will be missed.” He placed his hand on Ben’s chest and followed with, “May the force be with you, always, Ben.”

“And with you, Uncle Luke,” Ben said, wondering how he could feel so sad about leaving and yet so lighthearted at the decision to do so.

“I’ll tell Han to stop by,” Luke said and Ben nodded, glancing out the window and noticing that the sun was beginning to rise. “You should pack your belongings and we’ll tell the others later.”

Ben nodded and stood from his bed as his uncle did the same. There was no point in being hurt over being kicked out so suddenly when they both knew that it was for the best so Ben got to work packing his meager belongings: his lightsaber, his few sets of robes, the calligraphy set where he kept all of his Jedi learnings. He knew that he had no need for them anymore and yet, he couldn’t throw them away.

He was finishing up when there was a knock on his door, and before he could even answer, his fellow Jedi in training, Tai was stumbling into the room. Ben felt a rush of relief at the sight of his friend -- he’d been off-world on a mission for Luke. “Is it true?” he asked, looking at Ben.

“Is what true?” Ben asked, closing his backpack and setting it on the bed.

“That you’re leaving? Please tell me you’re just going on a mission!” Tai pleaded.

Ben shook his head, “I’m leaving. Master Skywalker and I decided it was for the best.”

“But…”

“Giving up, huh, Solo?” Voe called as she joined the conversation, leaning against Ben’s door frame, blocking him in. Hennix was at her side, frowning at the exchange. “Never would have pictured you as a quitter.”

Ben shrugged, “You always were a better Jedi, Voe.” He knew that response would wind her up because he knew after thirteen years just how to push her buttons.

She didn’t disappoint as her face furrowed in anger, “Not yet, Solo. That’s why you have to stay. So I can beat you properly once and for all.”

Ben smirked, “I guess we’ll just never know who’s the better Jedi then.”

The vein under Voe’s eye twitched and Hennix put a hand on her shoulder. “Relax, you should be glad Master Skywalker’s prized pupil is leaving. You’re next in line.”

Voe shot Hennix a glare and Ben was saved from another one of her snarky comments as Tai pulled him into a hug, “I understand why you’re doing it. But I will truly miss you, my friend.”

Aside from the voice in his head, Tai had been the only one who had ever listened to Ben and encouraged him to  _ be _ something. It was a love he had never felt from his uncle or his parents of anyone else. He patted Tai’s back. “I’ll miss you too. I promise to visit,” Ben said, although he had a feeling that his uncle would have objections to his students fraternizing with an outsider. “And you’ll visit me when you’re off-world.”

Tai nodded and let go of Ben, stepping back to take a good look at him. “Please don’t go.”

Ben laughed, “You’ll be fine. Hennix and Voe will still be here. And you can step in and take my place. Give Voe someone to challenge.”

“You say that like Voe ever had a chance of beating you,” Hennix laughed and Voe elbowed him in the ribs.

Luke stuck his head inside the room, “Oh, you’re all here.”

Tai nodded, “We’re saying goodbye to Ben.” He threw an arm around Ben’s shoulder and gave Luke a look of utter betrayal. “I can’t believe you’re letting him leave, Master Skywalker.”

“Ben has to do what is best for him,” Luke explained, letting himself into the room and heaving Ben’s backpack onto his shoulder. “Ready to go?”

Honestly, Ben wasn’t ready to go and had never planned to leave. He’d been sent here as a child, scared to be away from his mother for the first time in his life. As he learned and grew and tried to belong with his friends and Luke and the Jedi Code, he never thought he’d be saying goodbye to the force. He didn’t say any of that because he knew as well as Luke that he needed to get far away and put this path behind him before the darkness began to call.

As he boarded the ship with his father, Ben waved goodbye to his friends. As he settled into the co-pilot seat, he watched his father pilot the ship into the air. He didn’t know then that somewhere in the Unknown Regions, a young girl was listening to the strange voice in her head, telling her about the raw, untamed power inside of her and the truly special things she would achieve in the galaxy as the Mistress of the Knights of Ren.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear this is (probably) the last new fic I am going to start. Just a warning that it might go to Explicit later (haven't decided yet).
> 
> In case it was unclear, Rey destroyed Niima outpost on the same night that Ben was to destroy Luke's temple. In doing so, Rey fell to the darkside, but Snoke's influence over Ben was lifted when the Supreme Leader found a new target.
> 
> If you liked it, leave a comment and a kudos! Thanks <3


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